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Finland and Russia set up fifth place showdown in women’s ice hockey tournament

16/02/2014

As the women’s ice hockey classification play-offs got underway at the Shayba Arena, Finland defeated Germany 2-1, while Russia later powered past Japan 6-3 to set up a showdown for fifth place in the final standings.

In the early morning match, Finland raced out of the blocks against Germany, with Jenni Hirikoski scoring with less than two minutes on the click.

And they doubled their lead seven minutes later thanks to a clinical effort from Michelle Karvinen.

Bettina Evers reduced the arrears halfway into the second period to give the Germans hope, but with no further scoring the Finns ran out 2-1 winners.

Later in the day, Russia took on Japan in a firecracker of a match in which the momentum shifted in every period. After a cagey opening the host team grabbed the initiative in the 16th minute with Anna Shukina netting the opening goal.

When the Japanese drew level early in the second period through Tomoe Yamane, it sparked a flurry of end-to-end attacking play which produced four goals in five minutes.

Within half a minute Anna Shokhina had put the hosts back in front, only for Ayaka Toko to race up to the other end and equalise again six seconds later.

Galina Skiba then netted Russia’s third, and Olga Sosina took advantage of the powerplay to make it 4-2, much to the delight of the majority of the crowd in a packed Shayba Arena.

Japan were not done yet, however.Within three minutes of the restart,Chiho Asawa reduced the deficit once more.

But just as it seemed as if they could draw level again, they were undone by their own indiscipline. Not once but twice, Russia capitalised on power plays as Skiba scored her second, and Tatyana Burina completed the scoring to make the final score 6-3.

Russia will now face Finland on 18 February in a contest for fifth place in the final standings, while the day’s losing teams, Japan and Germany will face off to sort out seventh and eighth place.